Roughly 20 percent of eligible taxpayers don’t claim the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) when they file their yearly taxes. That means many of your residents are leaving money on the table at tax time – money they can use to stabilize their family budgets and boost the local economy. The National League of

This is guest post by Bill Eller, vice president, business development at HomeServe. Skilled trades are the future of work. A combination of Baby Boomers reaching retirement age and lack of interest by young adults in the skilled trade field has caused an unprecedented labor shortage. It’s estimated that, for each person who enters the

This is guest post by Bill Eller, vice president, business development at HomeServe. Ever the trailblazer, California’s first city, San Diego, also was the first city in California to embrace the NLC Service Line Warranty Program, entering into a partnership in June 2012. As the Preferred Service Line Warranty Partner of the City of San

This is a guest post by Wendy Weatherford, vice president of corporate communications and marketing for Clear Channel Outdoor Americas. Modern slavery is a billion-dollar industry that exploits 40.3 million victims around the globe. Whether you live in a bustling city, quiet suburb, or rural community, chances are human trafficking is happening right in your

This is a guest post by Brian Aylward, association manager for Tyler Technologies. Performance management was a hot topic recently at Socrata Connect. The most common feeling among the municipal staff, leaders and visionaries in attendance was a conflicting context of increased expectations and limited resources. One way for city leaders and staff to thrive

In 2018, for the fifth year in a row, housing featured as one of the top 10 issues addressed by mayors in their state of the city speeches — with more mentions than public safety, health and human services and education. As mayors and city council members look for ways to support low-income households in

At NLC, we hear you loud and clear. For city leaders, using data matters more than ever. You could even say we have the data to back it up: According to this year’s State of the Cities report, a fast-growing set of city leaders are focusing on government data and technology in their state of

The National League of Cities’ (NLC) Community and Economic Development Committee is consistently one of the largest of NLC’s seven advocacy committees. That makes sense, given that survey after survey has shown that economic development is consistently among the top priorities identified by local elected officials. It doesn’t seem to matter how well or poorly

This is a guest post form Ronald Simpson-Bey, who serves as the Director of Outreach and Alumni Engagement at JustLeadershipUSA. For any criminal justice reform policy to be truly effective, and for it to deliver the results that are long overdue — the decarceration and decriminalization of black and brown communities and communities experiencing poverty